The incident happened during a cross-country summer trip from Colorado to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Parents Joe and Serena Wailes said the school did not clear the sleeping arrangement with them beforehand.
In fact, they and other parents were assured that boys and girls would have separate sleeping arrangements and even be placed on separate floors over the course of the trip.
"There were four students in the room, and [their daughter] was supposed to share the bed with the student of the opposite sex who has a transgender gender identity," reports Mallory Rechtenbach, legal counsel on the Parental Rights team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). "The Wailes' daughter went into the bathroom [and] called her parents."
The 11-year-old knew the individual was a boy because he had told her on the first night of the trip.
Serena had accompanied her daughter on the trip but was not an official chaperone. Rechtenbach says the Wailes "had to ask multiple times" before the child was eventually moved to a different room. Even then, chaperones told her to lie about the reason for the move.
This week , ADF sent a letter to Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) on behalf of the parents that accuses the district of hiding information from parents and lying to students, acts that are unconstitutional. Rechtenbach says deception is the issue here.
"What we're complaining about is the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Wailes didn't have all of the information," the attorney explains. "The school district intentionally kept them in the dark instead of asking them prior to the trip if they would be ok with this rooming arrangement."
JCPS has a "confidential gender support plan" that asks for the name a transgender student uses and for his or her gender identity.
ADF, however, says the district's overnight rooming policy, which rooms students "based on their gender identity while hiding that information from other parents and students," violates parental rights and student privacy because the district is covertly convincing parents to agree to such arrangements.
Rechtenbach says that denies parents their constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their own children.
"When a school district gets in the way of a parent's constitutional rights, then everyone should be concerned," she submits.
The district has until 6:00 p.m. on December 18th to respond to ADF's letter.
JCPS made headlines earlier this year for its equity policies that are designed to keep parents unaware of their child's gender transition at school, according to documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.
